What is the value of a thing?
A question everybody should ask – especially before taking a buying decision.
What will be the value of the thing you are going to buy?
Not the cost.
Not the price.
The value.
What is the value of the jacket you are wearing?
Three years ago I bought a black leather jacket.
It cost 469 Euros.
To produce it, it probably cost around 150.
It is a beautiful jacket. The quality is high. The design is fresh. It feels like a second skin when you wear it. I love the jacket. Buying one of these has been a dream.
After buying it, I was happy as fuck. I felt special. I felt worth something. I remember going to the metro station while adding up all the prices I paid for the cloth I was wearing: 120 € for my sneakers, 99 € for my jeans, 40 € for my t-shirt, 469 € for my leather jacket. It sounds stupid and it is, but doing so I felt rich, I thought I made it.
During that time I proudly never entered H&M or Zara because I was making money to afford something better. I went shopping cloth often. I felt the first stage of financial freedom.
These days I thought expensive cloth make me a better person.
And now?
Three years later?
I rarely wear my leather jacket. I changed my mindset. I consider cloth as what it is, a thing.
Buying expensive cloth is not appealing anymore.
Now I would use the 469 € to travel home and to visit my family.
Now I know:
Clothes don´t make the man.
Building character is important.
As Helen Keller said:
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
I considered selling the jacket.
But I like it too much.
And above all, I want to keep it as a reminder to invest my money in the right way.
Don`t repeat my failure.
Ask yourself what the real value of a thing is.
